Government tax take reaches all-time high
Washington The government has hit a financial milestone — taking in more money in tax revenue in a single day than ever before.
After totaling it all up, the Treasury Department announced Thursday that it had collected $61 billion on Wednesday. That surpassed the old one-day record of $56 billion set on Dec. 15, 2000.
The bulk of the revenue — $49 billion — came from corporate tax payments, also a one-day record for such receipts. The old mark was $46 billion set last Dec. 15. Wednesday’s date, June 15, and Dec. 15 are both deadlines for corporations to make quarterly tax payments.
The government’s coffers have been swelling this year as tax receipts from both individuals and corporations have been on the rise, reflecting an improving economy. Because of those increases, this year’s federal deficit is expected to fall to around $350 billion, down from the $413 billion record in dollar terms set in 2004.
Woman soldier, 23, awarded Silver Star
Washington A 23-year-old sergeant with the Kentucky National Guard on Thursday became the first female soldier to receive the Silver Star — the nation’s third-highest medal for valor — since World War II.
Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, who is from Nashville, Tenn., but serves in a Kentucky unit, received the award for gallantry during a March 20 insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq. Two men from her unit, the 617th Military Police Company of Richmond, Ky., also received the Silver Star for their roles in the same action.
According to military accounts of the firefight, insurgents attacked the convoy as it traveled south of Baghdad, launching their assault from trenches alongside the road using rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Hester and her unit moved through enemy fire to the trenches, attacking them with grenades before entering and clearing them.
She killed at least three insurgents with her M4 rifle, according to her award citation.
Bush kicks off Medicare campaign
Washington
President Bush kicked off a nationwide campaign on Thursday, telling older people to circle Nov. 15 on their calendars. That’s when they can enroll for the new prescription drug coverage under Medicare.
“Starting this November, every American on Medicare can sign up to get help paying for their prescription drugs,” Bush said in a speech at the Health and Human Services Department.
Starting Oct. 1, information about the prescription drug coverage will be available to 42 million older people as well as people with developmental and physical disabilities and mental illnesses and HIV/AIDS.
‘Falling artist’ receives mixed reviews
Chicago
A performance artist wearing a business suit and safety harnesses jumped repeatedly from a museum roof to create photographs that recall scenes from the World Trade Center attack, but his spectacle was scorned by some onlookers and victims’ relatives.
Collaborating photographers snapped away as Kerry Skarbakka fell more than 30 times from the five-story Museum of Contemporary Art. The photographs will be retouched to erase the pulleys and wires that kept Skarbakka from hitting the pavement.
Skarbakka, 34, said he started thinking about falling after watching on television as workers jumped to their deaths from the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
“I was so distraught, I needed some way to find an artistic response,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times. Now, he says he sees falling as a metaphor for life.
His antics on Tuesday attracted a crowd of gawkers, who became sidewalk critics.
“It was fabulous,” said Darlene Schuff, 56. “I just wanted to be a part of it. It’s a happening.”
In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg called it “nauseatingly offensive,” and some who lost family and friends at the trade center agreed.